Tiffany Joins The Battle Of The Soles

Although the Louboutin versus YSL case concluded a few months ago, the battle of the red soles is not even close to being over. Christian Louboutin sued Yves Saint Laurent over YSL use of red soles on a few of their heels for the YSL resort collection. To refresh yourself on the issue, check out our past article covering the topic here. The courtroom battle rested on the argument that Christian Louboutin trademarked his red sole shoes in 2008. However, the judge for the case favored with Yves Saint Laurent, as he does not believe that a color can be trademarked as it is an aesthetic factor. In turn, Louboutin’s lawyers have appealed the ruling and are awaiting a court date.  The company is going to do everything they can to protect the one aspect that sets them apart from all other high-end shoe designers – the red sole. More recently, the case has peered its high fashion head back into the news and this time with another high-end company determined to protect their color specific recognition.

Tiffany & Co. is now realizing if Louboutin’s lawyers cannot proceed with a successful appeal, their company may be next. For as long as anyone can remember, Tiffany & Co.  is known for their delicate, robin’s egg blue boxes and bags, besides the diamonds and silver that are placed in those legendary boxes and bags of course. Due to this possible issue, Tiffany & Co. have filed a legal brief today to support Louboutin’s lawyers. This legal brief has also been referred to as an amicus curiae. Amicus curiae translates to literally mean ‘a friend of the court’ in Latin. It is essentially a procedure performed by a party not involved in the court case to provide support and information. However, the information given is then left to the court’s decision on whether or not it will be used to determine the ruling of the case. The amicus curiae of this case is gravitating toward the capability to trademark a color. Tiffany & Co. are doing all they can at the time. As the possibility for Tiffany & Co. to lose their color trademark is rather slim, maybe this effort will sway YSL to drop the red on their soles.